Rabbi Levenstein: Eradicate homosexuality just like we did AIDS
The fiercely anti-liberal rabbi reiterated his objections to any acceptance of homosexuals as normative people.
By JEREMY SHARONRabbi Yigal Levinstein, head of the pre-military academy at the settlement of Eli(photo credit: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT)
After his “homosexuals are perverts” speech and his “women in the army become non-Jews” speech, Rabbi Yigal Levenstein of the Bnei David pre-military academy in Eli has now said that homosexuality should be eradicated like AIDS.In his latest incendiary lecture delivered in January, the fiercely anti-liberal rabbi reiterated his objections to any acceptance of homosexuals as normative people, decried the inability to refer gay men and women to conversion therapy, and generally described acceptance of homosexuality as madness.“They’ve taken a tragedy of men and a tragedy of women and turned it into an ideology,” railed Levenstein during one of several lessons on the issue of sexuality, Channel 10 reported on Thursday night.“I am convinced that on the day that people will disagree that this thing [homosexuality] is normal, we will save all of human society, and physiological science and psychological science will not have any problem in dealing with this problem, we just need to define it as a problem,” continued Levenstein.“Do you remember that once there was this concept of AIDS and the entire medical world attacked it and managed to eradicate it.“Or any other problem. Problems we eliminate, defects can be eliminated,” he averred.Levenstein, who is a founder and co-head of Bnei David, has generated outrage with his illiberal views on several occasions in the recent past.In July 2016, the rabbi gave an address to a conference of rabbis describing homosexuals as perverts, and then repeated his accusation in December that year.Then in March last year, Levenstein denounced female military service, said religious women lose their religious values in the army, and become “crazy” and “non-Jews.”Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman threatened to revoke state funding for Bnei David if Levenstein did not resign, and the rabbi did take a short sabbatical due to the pressure on the institution before returning to teach there in recent months.
In response to the publication of his latest lesson, the Bnei David pre-military academy stood by Levenstein’s comments in a statement to the press, saying the lesson was “given in a respectful and non-injurious manner, and stems from a recognition of facts in reality, out of an attempt to help and assist students.”The statement continued: “The words that were quoted express a legitimate opinion that seeks to cry out the obligations of humanity. Experience proves that in many instances it is possible to help those with reverse inclinations to return to be normal people.”Just last week, another rabbi from Bnei David, Rabbi Yosef Kalner, created a storm of controversy, claiming that women have “weak minds,” can only achieve mediocre levels of spirituality and have been confused by modern thinking on the role of women in society.